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If actions speak louder than words, you don’t need to hear what the Calgary Flames have to say about their recent string of losses.

But when strong words come out of a disappointed locker-room, suggesting the team quit and is giving away their NHL playoff hopes, it sure seems to support the evidence they’ve left on the ice during the last week.

Losses to the Edmonton Oilers, the Columbus Blue Jackets, the Colorado Avalanche and the Minnesota Wild have them looking like they’ve given up on their hopes to qualify for the post-season, especially Thursday’s crushing shootout decision against the Wild, who were down two goals before the Flames initiated cruise control and sat back as the hosts dominated the last half of the game.

“I don’t think there’s anybody in that room that has quit or has given up — I don’t believe that happens on the ice,” Flames GM Jay Feaster said Friday at a practice rink in Texas ahead of a two-game home-and-home set between the Flames and the Dallas Stars. “I don’t believe we make a conscious decision to stop playing our game.”

He also believes the rash words spoken in the locker-room by disappointed players were simply heat-of-the-moment thoughts.

“It’s tough. It’s one thing to be able to stand here the day after and talk about things that happened,” Feaster said. “You know the kind of raw emotion that’s going on after a game like that. We’re all competitors, from the management to the coaching staff to every one of those players.

“I don’t believe for a minute it’s anything other than the heat of the moment, you’re not even thinking about the choice of words.”

That’s precisely the reason Feaster told his head coach Brent Sutter to let associate coach Craig Hartsburg handle the media spotlight after Thursday’s loss. Sutter was visibly upset and angry with the outcome.

But with seven games remaining, the team needs to let their play start speaking volumes.

Thanks to three straight ‘loser points’ from overtime and a pair of shootout decisions, they’re still hanging in the playoff race.

“While we’re not happy with where we are in the standings and we’re not happy with blowing leads and we’re not happy with losing in the shootout … the fact is if we get a win in Dallas, it’s four out of six points on this trip and we got back home and we have Dallas again,” Feaster said. “We have L.A. We have Colorado …

“We’re playing those teams that we’re in the hunt with. So I don’t think we can afford to lose perspective, in terms of the bigger picture. At this point in time, there’s no reason why we can go on another run. We put together five in a row not that long ago. We have that ability.”

Showing it for a period, or a half-hour, isn’t good enough. It’s the reason the team is on the outside looking in and the same factor that leads to their late-game collapses.

The team might not be quitting on purpose, but there’s a purely mental deficiency as obvious as dehydration in the desert.

“It’s not because the guys don’t care,” Sutter said. “They’re a very caring group, and they want to succeed.”

They’re still only succeeding in frustrating their fans craving consistency.

“I wish there was an easy and quick answer to that. For whatever reason, it seems we get ourselves into a spot where we decide that, somehow, sitting back is the safer way to go. In Tampa, Craig Ramsay was the one who came up with this — our motto was, ‘Safe is death.’ The whole idea is you can’t sit back. Whether we have a lead or we’re trailing or whatever it is, we want to be pressing the issue. For some inexplicable reason, we decide, ‘Let’s all get back to the house, and let’s defend this.’ And that’s when we get ourselves into trouble.

“We have trouble staying with it, and we have to figure out why that is.”

There may not be enough games left to make that happen.

steve.macfarlane@sunmedia.ca

On Twitter: @SUNMacfarlane

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